{"id":21866,"date":"2022-07-23T14:46:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T14:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=21866"},"modified":"2023-12-22T21:38:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T21:38:56","slug":"as-the-climate-crisis-hits-home-our-governments-are-pouring-fuel-on-the-fire-lets-stop-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/23\/as-the-climate-crisis-hits-home-our-governments-are-pouring-fuel-on-the-fire-lets-stop-them\/","title":{"rendered":"As the climate crisis hits home, our governments are pouring fuel in the fire. Let’s stop them"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article from Climate Camp Scotland on the forthcoming Climate Camp in Aberdeen from July 26th to August 1st was was first posted by bella caledonia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0AS THE CLIMATE CRISIS HITS HOME, OUR GOVERNMENTS ARE POURING FUEL ON THE FIRE. LET’S STOP THEM.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Britain is baking. England and Wales, for the first time, face the highest level of alert for a heatwave that\u00a0could kill thousands of people. Across the channel,\u00a0<\/a>Portugal, Spain and France are battling some of the worst wildfires Europe has ever seen, with extreme heat causing mass fatalities.The Portuguese Health Ministry reported that between 7 and 13 July,\u00a0one person was dying from the heatwave every forty minutes.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The climate crisis is on our doorstep. Yet, as anyone paying attention will have realised, the worst is still to come. We know that heatwaves, droughts and wildfires will become more frequent the more climate breakdown progresses. We know that in the next five years,\u00a0we will likely breach the target of 1.5 degree warming worldwide<\/a>\u00a0set out in the Paris Agreement. And we also know that our governments are set on making things worse.<\/p>\n

Amid recent political shenanigans, the UK government somehow still found the time to approve the\u00a0Jackdaw gas field\u00a0<\/a>in the North Sea last month. The Cambo oil field, under fresh ownership,\u00a0is back in play.<\/a>\u00a0And while Rishi Sunak (Tory leadership hopeful and richest man in the House of Commons) eventually bowed to pressure to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas profits, he left open a convenient loophole that enables fossil fuel companies to\u00a0avoid up to 80% of the levy<\/a>\u00a0if they invest in even more extraction. In total, twenty-nine\u00a0new North Sea\u00a0oil<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0gas<\/a>\u00a0projects are in the pipeline, which together could cause\u00a0nearly one billion tonnes of carbon pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of using the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine to transform the UK\u2019s energy system and end our reliance on oil & gas for good, the government is hellbent on setting us towards a path where it is\u00a0impossible for the UK to ever reach its climate goals.\u00a0<\/a>But let\u2019s not only dwell on an ever more unhinged Westminster government: While the SNP last year has\u00a0abandoned maximum north sea oil and gas recovery<\/a>\u00a0and pays lip service to the notion of a just transition, even more progressive corners of the party remain entranced by fantasy technologies like hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), which are viewed as a panacea to save a dying industry.<\/p>\n

Even with the weakening appeal of an \u201cIt\u2019s Scotland\u2019s Oil!\u201d narrative for independence, there is a lack of imagination concerning what Scotland\u2019s future could look like unencumbered by fossil fuels, and how to build a democratic energy system outwith the hands of corporations, as well as a lack of knowledge on how damaging the fossil fuel industry really was for workers and communities across the nation.<\/p>\n

A RMT bulletin from March\u00a0<\/a>bitterly called out the greenwashing from governments and corporations on \u201ctransitioning\u201d and \u201cgreen recovery\u201d. Right now there is nothing to transition to, as Scotland\u2019s manufacturing base has been left to rot. Meanwhile, over 35,000 workers have been made redundant in the last few years, a trend that will likely continue. Offshore workers, facing decades of boom and bust, know just as much as (or even more than) climate activists about the janus-faced nature of the fossil fuel industry \u2013 and\u00a0most would switch to working with renewables at once if they could.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

You might think that at least Aberdeen became rich on the profits of North Sea oil and gas, with every brick of the city being financed by the fossil fuel sector. It\u2019s true that the fossil fuel industry\u2019s influence can be felt everywhere, with oil sponsorship of art galleries, sports teams, and the city\u2019s pride festival. However, the long history of Aberdonian communities\u2019 resistance to, and destruction by, the\u00a0 oil and gas industry should not be forgotten. Back in the 1970s, when North Sea extraction began, Aberdeen bid to be the \u2018hub\u2019 city for the North Sea, and the local authority forced through major changes to accommodate the industry, including the demolition of the \u2018Old Torry\u2019 village to expand the harbour.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, Aberdeen City Council continues to prioritise the industry over its communities.\u00a0It partnered with BP<\/a>\u00a0to deliver its illusory \u2018net-zero\u2019 targets and build a new hydrogen hub, pushing\u00a0false solutions like carbon capture and hydrogen<\/a>\u00a0that only extends fossil fuel extractivism as excuses for real, vital change. As\u00a0Yolanda Cowen from XR Aberdeen<\/a>\u00a0said back in 2020:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t trust a tobacco company to provide cancer care, so why are our political representatives allowing the least trustworthy company to muscle in on the most pressing issue of our time? They are literally the last people who should be asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they try to expand the harbour area for an \u201cenergy transition zone\u201d for fossil fuel companies, they also\u00a0threaten to redevelop St Fittick\u2019s park<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the last freely accessible green space in Torry, Aberdeen. Taking away public space from one of the poorest communities in Aberdeen to hand it over to the oil and gas industry is bad enough \u2013\u00a0 using the project as a greenwashing exercise is beyond cynical.<\/p>\n

But it was always those who are least responsible for climate breakdown to suffer most from the fossil fuel industry, both here in Scotland and worldwide.\u00a0\u00a0Exxon and Shell have not only wronged communities next to their Mossmorran<\/a>\u00a0gas plants in Fife, but have committed\u00a0decades of destruction and abuse in Nigeria<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0brutalised communities in Indonesia with the help of paid militias to protect their gas plant<\/a>. BP is not only greenwashing on behalf of Aberdeen City Council, but has a long history of\u00a0colonial theft, human rights abuse and ecological devastation in Colombia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
RIC at the Cop26 demonstration in Glasgow in October 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The truth is that neither council, governments nor corporations care about their communities, nevermind what is necessary for achieving climate justice. As a result, they will allow oil and gas to dominate Aberdeen for decades to come, and local, as well as global, communities to experience immense suffering.<\/p>\n

This is why it needs climate activists, standing side by side with communities, fighting for climate justice and the true beginning of a just transition. Time and again, mass protests at climate camps have preceded major victories. In 2009 the first Scottish Climate Camp brought people from across the UK to Lanarkshire to join a local and national struggle against coal that by 2016 had seen the end of coal in Scotland. Starting in 2012, anti-fracking camps in England brought national attention to local struggles that saw a halt to fracking across the UK in 2019. In Dakota, USA, rolling resistance by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe brought global attention to their struggle to defend their land from oil pipelines.<\/p>\n

Now is our time\u00a0 to transform Aberdeen into a beacon of energy democracy, spearheading Scotland\u2019s transition into a country that prioritises people and the planet over profit. Let\u2019s make it clear to the fossil fuel industry and their spokespeople in government that we will not stand idly by while they set the world on fire. Change will not be handed to us from above \u2013 help us fight for it.<\/p>\n

Join us this summer at climate camp in Aberdeen, 28 July to 1 August:\u00a0https:\/\/www.climatecampscotland.com<\/a><\/p>\n

19.7.22<\/strong><\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

Earth Champs \u2013 Mike Small, bella caledonia<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Greenwashing\u2018\u00a0 by Biden\u2019s Democrats and the SNP \u2013 Robert Belano, Left Voice (USA) and Laurie Macfarlane, open democracy<\/a><\/p>\n

Two views of Cop26 \u2013 Christopher Silver, bella caledonia and Michael Roberts blog<\/a><\/p>\n

A Crime Against humanity: the \u2018Greenwash Festival\u2019 of Cop26<\/a><\/p>\n

The imperial mode of living: Interview with Markus Wissen, Ben Wray, bella caledonia<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article from Climate Camp Scotland on the forthcoming Climate Camp in Aberdeen from July 26th to August 1st was was first posted by bella caledonia.\u00a0 \u00a0AS THE CLIMATE CRISIS HITS HOME, OUR GOVERNMENTS ARE POURING FUEL ON THE FIRE. LET’S STOP THEM. Britain is baking. England and Wales, for the first time, face the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1867,1846,1857,8865,1845,1868,1875],"tags":[9116],"class_list":["post-21866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-british-imperialism","category-environmental-degradation","category-sustainable-development","category-us-imperialism","category-against-imperialism","category-scotland-against-unionism","tag-author-climate-camp-scotland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":7479,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21866"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28713,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866\/revisions\/28713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}